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alba_marie's review
5.0
"This is a weird story which will only haunt you if I tell it."
"Please tell it for I like weird tales, and they never trouble me."
"You'll be sorry for it, and so shall I, perhaps..."
- Lost in a Pyramid, Louisa May Alcot
The story of my life. I love a good, weird, dark, ghostly, ghoulish, devilish witchy tale. And I love a good vampire story, I love the Victorian, I love the Gothic, and I love Dracula. So, Dracula's Brethern, a collection of "lost" Victorian vampire stories was pretty much guaranteed to delight. What's also cool about it is that the editors picked stories from all over the world, with settings in the England, Ukraine, France, China, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, the Balkans, Iceland, Scotland and the US. And several of them were even translated works, so kudos to them.
I'm not going to talk about all of the stories, but see below for the ones I liked best:
Lost in a Pyramid, or the Mummy's Curse - (Alcott) I couldn't believe it that the author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, wrote a vampire story! And one set in Egypt! In a pyramid! The "vampire" part was a bit tenuous, but I loved the setting so much that I loved the story. The first half was better than the second, because that's the lost/pyramid part. The second half is about growing cursed seeds and getting a cursed flower and a 3000 year old revenge story, which wasn't bad, but it wasn't inside a pyramid, sooo..... yep.
Burgomaster in a Bottle (Erkmann-Chatrian) Such a strange story! Set in the vineyards of France, this weird tale compares wine and blood - how very Catholic of you - and uses the wine to function as a sort of stand in for blood a dead miser needs to re-give himself life.
Viy (Nickolai Gogol) Did you know he's actually Ukrainian? I didn't either. Anyway, this longer story was SO WEIRD. Half fairy tale, half folk tale, with a sprinkling of fantasy and horror, I have no idea how to explain this story except that it's the weirdest one of the bunch.
Professor Brankel's Secret (Fergus Hume) Set in Germany and England, this longish story is more about a rare book quest and the thirst for forbidden knowledge rather than a traditional vampire story but I liked the bookish theme and it was interesting to see the parallels between the professor's obsession with this book (and the lost knowledge it contained) and the curse of the vampire.
John Barrington Cowles (Arthur Conan Doyle) Did you know that the author of Sherlock Holmes also wrote a vampire story? News to me! This longer story deals with the supernatural decline and death of the titular character. Not my fave, but it gets a mention because it's written by Conan Doyle.
The Mask (Richard Marsh) The plot of this story is good - a man is robbed by a monster while paralysed on a train and then is stalked by the other passenger on the train - but I didn't love the conclusion as it was a bit problematic. I loved that it was all very Western and gruesome though.
The Last of the Vampires (Phil Robinson) Very cool dual-timeline story and slightly different take on vampires and a dash of archeology. Plus the Amazon/Brazil setting and South American legends set it apart. I love how the wild, uninhabited jungle setting really gives it a different, scarier vibe.
The Story of Jella and the Macic (Prof P Jones) This was my favourite! The author was apparently an expert on Slavic legends and Balkan traditions and culture. And it showed! This Slavic-inspired story imbues elements of fairytales and folk tales, and easily transports the reader to the Balkans. I loved the setting, I loved the fairytale logic, and I loved the ending. It's apparently part of The Probratim novel so now I want to read that.
- The Ring of Knowledge (William Beer) The Ring was a vampiric! Whaaat. Age old thing where an object of power, that the MC just happens upon, grants you one wish, or one power, just just a liiiitle bit of your life force (or blood here). Anyway, the ring randomly teleports his mind to another time/place and gives him intimate knowledge of a crime and he's able to exonerate an innocent man. Wasn't the best but wasn't the worst either.
A Beautiful Vampire (Arabella Kenealy) Supposedly based on Countess Barthory's legendary horrors, this tale to me didn't seem to have much to do with that terrible woman. This lady was just insipid, vane, narcissistic and selfish, and not very smart either mind you, to the point that she turned herself into a vampire to eat others to stay pretty. Except that no one liked her, so they just tricked her (very easily) and let her starve, and it wasn't that hard? This one was okay but not amazing.
Glamir (Sabine Barin Gould) Based on Icelandic sagas and myths, this story is about the Draugr, a sort of animated corpse that preys on the living. It's based on Grettir's Saga. The story itself is only kinda memorable but the epic-style and setting make it stand out.
The Electric Vampire (FH Power) A different sort of vampire, this one was created through electricity (like Frankenstein) and based on this Dr Crousse dude's account that his electric experiements produced a new species of bug. In this story, they basically honey-I-blew-up-the-kids a tick until it was dog-size (EW - they kept calling it beautiful GROSS) and it zapped people and drank their blood. The plot was basically, "crap we have to kill the monster we created oh no!" but worth mentioning for the bizarre type of vampire.
Other stories included that didn't stay with me, or that I skipped because they disinterested me, were:
- The Bride of the Isles
- The Unholy Compact Abjured
- Manor
- Old Aeson
- The Story of Baelbrow
- The Vampire Nemisis
- The Purple Terror
"Please tell it for I like weird tales, and they never trouble me."
"You'll be sorry for it, and so shall I, perhaps..."
- Lost in a Pyramid, Louisa May Alcot
The story of my life. I love a good, weird, dark, ghostly, ghoulish, devilish witchy tale. And I love a good vampire story, I love the Victorian, I love the Gothic, and I love Dracula. So, Dracula's Brethern, a collection of "lost" Victorian vampire stories was pretty much guaranteed to delight. What's also cool about it is that the editors picked stories from all over the world, with settings in the England, Ukraine, France, China, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, the Balkans, Iceland, Scotland and the US. And several of them were even translated works, so kudos to them.
I'm not going to talk about all of the stories, but see below for the ones I liked best:
Lost in a Pyramid, or the Mummy's Curse - (Alcott) I couldn't believe it that the author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, wrote a vampire story! And one set in Egypt! In a pyramid! The "vampire" part was a bit tenuous, but I loved the setting so much that I loved the story. The first half was better than the second, because that's the lost/pyramid part. The second half is about growing cursed seeds and getting a cursed flower and a 3000 year old revenge story, which wasn't bad, but it wasn't inside a pyramid, sooo..... yep.
Burgomaster in a Bottle (Erkmann-Chatrian) Such a strange story! Set in the vineyards of France, this weird tale compares wine and blood - how very Catholic of you - and uses the wine to function as a sort of stand in for blood a dead miser needs to re-give himself life.
Viy (Nickolai Gogol) Did you know he's actually Ukrainian? I didn't either. Anyway, this longer story was SO WEIRD. Half fairy tale, half folk tale, with a sprinkling of fantasy and horror, I have no idea how to explain this story except that it's the weirdest one of the bunch.
Professor Brankel's Secret (Fergus Hume) Set in Germany and England, this longish story is more about a rare book quest and the thirst for forbidden knowledge rather than a traditional vampire story but I liked the bookish theme and it was interesting to see the parallels between the professor's obsession with this book (and the lost knowledge it contained) and the curse of the vampire.
John Barrington Cowles (Arthur Conan Doyle) Did you know that the author of Sherlock Holmes also wrote a vampire story? News to me! This longer story deals with the supernatural decline and death of the titular character. Not my fave, but it gets a mention because it's written by Conan Doyle.
The Mask (Richard Marsh) The plot of this story is good - a man is robbed by a monster while paralysed on a train and then is stalked by the other passenger on the train - but I didn't love the conclusion as it was a bit problematic. I loved that it was all very Western and gruesome though.
Spoiler
Of course the insane woman did it. For no reason than just to cause harm. Because that's what unhappy women do right? Go insane and hurt men? The gory mask thing was a great touch though.The Last of the Vampires (Phil Robinson) Very cool dual-timeline story and slightly different take on vampires and a dash of archeology. Plus the Amazon/Brazil setting and South American legends set it apart. I love how the wild, uninhabited jungle setting really gives it a different, scarier vibe.
The Story of Jella and the Macic (Prof P Jones) This was my favourite! The author was apparently an expert on Slavic legends and Balkan traditions and culture. And it showed! This Slavic-inspired story imbues elements of fairytales and folk tales, and easily transports the reader to the Balkans. I loved the setting, I loved the fairytale logic, and I loved the ending.
Spoiler
BIG fan of bad people getting what they deserved, and LOVED the comparison of vampires and fairies. The vampires weren't senseless evil things! Just punishing the whiney parents who stole Jella from them in the first place, and she gets her happy ending... and they get dinner. Perfecto.- The Ring of Knowledge (William Beer) The Ring was a vampiric! Whaaat. Age old thing where an object of power, that the MC just happens upon, grants you one wish, or one power, just just a liiiitle bit of your life force (or blood here). Anyway, the ring randomly teleports his mind to another time/place and gives him intimate knowledge of a crime and he's able to exonerate an innocent man. Wasn't the best but wasn't the worst either.
A Beautiful Vampire (Arabella Kenealy) Supposedly based on Countess Barthory's legendary horrors, this tale to me didn't seem to have much to do with that terrible woman. This lady was just insipid, vane, narcissistic and selfish, and not very smart either mind you, to the point that she turned herself into a vampire to eat others to stay pretty. Except that no one liked her, so they just tricked her (very easily) and let her starve, and it wasn't that hard? This one was okay but not amazing.
Glamir (Sabine Barin Gould) Based on Icelandic sagas and myths, this story is about the Draugr, a sort of animated corpse that preys on the living. It's based on Grettir's Saga. The story itself is only kinda memorable but the epic-style and setting make it stand out.
The Electric Vampire (FH Power) A different sort of vampire, this one was created through electricity (like Frankenstein) and based on this Dr Crousse dude's account that his electric experiements produced a new species of bug. In this story, they basically honey-I-blew-up-the-kids a tick until it was dog-size (EW - they kept calling it beautiful GROSS) and it zapped people and drank their blood. The plot was basically, "crap we have to kill the monster we created oh no!" but worth mentioning for the bizarre type of vampire.
Other stories included that didn't stay with me, or that I skipped because they disinterested me, were:
- The Bride of the Isles
- The Unholy Compact Abjured
- Manor
- Old Aeson
- The Story of Baelbrow
- The Vampire Nemisis
- The Purple Terror
More...